Sunday, 23 August 2009

Banoffee pie (aka Banamel pie)

This has to be one of the simplest desserts to make yet is always greeted with delight.If you can open packets and chop things, you can make an awesome banoffee pie.You don’t even need an oven!

I suppose you could make this into more work – if you really wanted to – by making your own caramel. I know you can do this by boiling a tin of condensed milk for several hours but I’ve heard stories about the tin exploding if you don’t keep it covered with water. I really didn’t fancy steam cleaning my entire kitchen this weekend so I bought my caramel!

The CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) declared banoffee pie to be in her “top two desserts”.When I enquired as to the other she admitted that she hadn’t thought that far ahead but felt she should leave some leeway for other great desserts!

My love affair with the crushed hobnob biscuit base continues – it works very well here giving some oaty crunch to an otherwise soft dish.

Whilst making this I pondered the name: banoffee.It’s a contraction of ‘banana’ and ‘toffee’ but why? The dish containsno toffee – it’s caramel.Why isn’t it called Banamel pie?Or Caramana Pie?

My extensive research (ok, so I googled it – that still counts!) revealed that toffee and caramel are different (see here if you’re interested) mainly because toffee contains no milk or cream.Banoffee pie only ever contains caramel.So why does toffee get the name check and steal the glory?The campaign to rename the dish starts here….

Ingredients

300g oaty biscuits (I used Hobnobs )120g butter , melted397g tin Nestlé Carnation Caramel (or any other caramel – I used Dulce de Leche) – save a little to drizzle over the cream3 -4 bananas, sliced350ml double cream1 tbsp icing sugarChocolate to sprinkle over the top – I used 2 crushed Flake bars

How to make

-Crush the biscuits in a food processor or by placing them in a bag and hitting with a rolling pin.

-Add the melted butter and pulse to combine.

-Press the mixture into a 24cm tart tin or pie dish.No need to grease it – the biscuit base is buttery enough not to stick.

-Chill in the fridge until the base is set.

-Retain two tablespoons of the caramel and spread the rest over the biscuit base and return to the fridge until the caramel firms up – about an hour.

-Slice the bananas and arrange over the caramel.

-Whip the cream and icing sugar until you reach thesoft peak stage then spread over the bananas.

My boyfriend's gran has always mixed in some brewed coffee into the cream, which is probably the origins of the name. It may not be, but she's 90, and I ain't about to fight with her! Plus, it tastes amazing with all the other flavours. BTW, your hob nob crust looks AMAZING - really thick and sturdy!

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About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.